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DENAFRIPS DAC ---- Owner Impressions, Feedback, General Discussion, Questions and more....

Thread for OWNER IMPRESSIONS, FEEDBACK, QUESTIONS, ETC. regarding DENAFRIPS DACs.

DENAFRIPS lists the following R2R DACs:

Ares, Pontus, Venus, and Terminator (in increasing price order).

"DENAFRIPS incorporated in year 2012, focus in developing high end audio equipment at a very affordable price. Throughout the years of intense Research & Development, and continuous improvement of the product lines, DENAFRIPS had finally settled with the current product range equipped with R-2R ladder DAC technology. The reason behind this is the designer strongly believe that R-2R DAC is the best way to reproduce music.

The name, DENAFRIPS, stand for:

D-ynamic
E-xquisite
N-atural
A-ttractive
F-idelity
R-efined
I-ntoxicating
P-ure
S-ophisticated

This mean a lot and it is the house-sound of all DENAFRIPS products." [Copied From Denafrips About Us section]
david_ten
jayctoy's avatar
jayctoy
1,962 posts
 
When I heard the terminator at Axpona 2018 , It sounds very good, Vinh played different kinds of music, with ease and effortlessly, I was in that room for three days, Music came out very involving, soundstage is huge, it’s very 3D .Thats what I heard in that system....
drrnc2
24 posts
 
milpai & georgehifi---interesting comments. I have found pretty much the opposite--the better the DAC (or perhaps any link in the chain) the better the marginal recording sounds. I am now listening to the Denafrips Venus, and compared to my previous DAC, the MHDT Stockholm 2, I find more detail, much better sound stage, more dynamics, a slight loss of warmth. My general sense is that the more your system can "get out of the way", that is, the less noise your components add to the stream, the better the recording sounds. Overall, I think that playback gear is catching up to digital recording and allowing a more representative image of whats on the disc. Just my $.02

Rich
jayctoy's avatar
jayctoy
1,962 posts
 
Rich I agree, with my Ares Denafrips and my Schiit Gumby same results regular CDs got better also.My experience bad recording will most of the time sound bad, especially on bright. I think the Venus is not yet burn in why Vinh did not really played it when I was in the gingko room....according to him it’s very close to Terminator....I believe Him ....
trelja
3,215 posts
 
@drrnc2 I have found pretty much the opposite--the better the DAC (or perhaps any link in the chain) the better the marginal recording sounds.

Well said, Rich.  During our get togethers at Vinh's that assertion held up.  We listened to recordings of differing quality, and in every case, the better conduit sounded better.

@jayctoy You made a wise move with the Ares.  Along the lines of the 4 products lining up so closely, the sub $700 one is the absolute no-brainer, and most obvious choice.  One gives up very little, even to the Terminator.  Of course, the chassis and overall aesthetic step forward as one moves up the ladder, if one considers those attributes critical 
jayctoy's avatar
jayctoy
1,962 posts
 
Trelja (Joe) When I listened I just knew the Ares has many character sound that I did like. I was gonna purchase the Pontus but the Ares is very involving to my ears, either of those DACs you can’t go wrong. Iam also fortunate when I hooked the Ares it is as good as the Metrum Onyx DAc $1900 and my Gumby $1279 with shipping....Iam getting good 3D , slam, speed, excellent vocal, transient is excellent...this is in my second system...,
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